When Younger Daughter (who, as you know, is in the Navy) was home visiting us last May, one of the things she did was sort and inventory her extensive collection of books.
We moved out of our old house while she was overseas in Japan, so we boxed all the books she had left behind in her bedroom. We made sure to identify her books, as we had thousands of our own books boxed up as well.
When we moved into our new home, Younger Daughter's books got stored up in the new loft Don built above his "man cave." Last May, she was just heading for her European duty station and didn't know what her living situation would be. So she sorted her books and labeled some for quasi-permanent storage with us, but a large selection she wanted shipped overseas whenever she got her own place.
She's now settled into her apartment where she'll be for several years, and asked for her books. In late December, I shipped her the first batch, which she just received. But she had nowhere to put them ... yet.
Because one wall of her apartment is an enormous blank white space, and because she's not allowed to paint it a different color, she came up with a clever idea.
She went to IKEA (of course there's an IKEA not far away from her!) and purchased enough bookshelves to fit the entire length of the wall. Then, to add a dramatic splash of color, she's papering the inside of each bookshelf with wallpaper, as well as painting the shelves a darker color to offset the stark white walls.
She admits the blue-and-yellow theme may look strange, but I have a feeling she'll be able to pull it off (unlike me, both our daughters developed excellent taste in interior design).
Meanwhile, I boxed up the remainder of her library and shipped it off to her.
She said she'll send pictures when the whole thing is complete. As I told the nice lady in the post office who was processing the customs forms, there are worse things to have than kids who are crazy about their books.
well how cool....very impressive lot to go...nowadays i just email-telegram them to save space...even me as old man in middle of nowhere-have my kids past present and future books and would never be able to imagine doing what you folks are doing...but they would all fit on a big space ship...love the post the pics esp brought me miles of smiles...shaking my head--yup electronic on usb and all that and more...but not as much an experience as holding the physical real various sized book and feeling the paper and reading the prints and amazed at the illustrations and pics..manythxs--hope your daughter figures out the shelving thing...stackem-rackem-and packem maam-then use them as shelves to hold the next level...ps i bet your daughter could find many wonderful used books at thrift old book stores to add to her library...manythxs
ReplyDeletemanythxs-guess i hit the wrong button and the previous was shipped but ups is downsizing and the button was not labeled properly
ReplyDeleteps there is a site called united network .earth and they are starting a global donation process of books to send to other parts of world...and there is also a site called zlib.org and they have a donate paperbooks for global redistribute also that is being started...
ReplyDeleteThe love of books can only be a good thing. You are a good mother to indulge her.
ReplyDeleteGuess that'S what happens when you home school. They actually learn to read, write, and think, and enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteDo you get special rates being armed forces overseas
ReplyDeletePossibly (since it's going to a military address) but I'm not sure. What DID save a lot of money was shipping it book rate (media mail).
Delete- Patrice
What an unusual and wonderful blog post to read. I can’t believe the mice haven’t gotten to the books. You must have some very hard working barn cats!
ReplyDeleteThinking so durn hard about joining the army myself. Don’t trust Joe Biden but feck it.
ReplyDeleteJoin your local State Guard, if you have one. Or, maybe someone elses. With all the men coming in unvetted from who knows where, every state needs to beef defense up.
DeleteI am surprised the military did not ship them for her. Prior to her next move, she might want to check with her movement or transportation office to find out what her weight allowance is.
ReplyDelete